Gripla - 20.12.2011, Blaðsíða 107

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interest. It is a brief passage from a Munich commentary on Genesis pre-
served in fols. 49r–64r of the manuscript Clm 6302, which was written at
Freising towards the end of the eighth century, and which shows clear Irish
associations and features.116 I take the text from Stancliffe’s own edition
(Clm 6302, fol. 59r):117
In arco autem iii [sic] colores sunt: albus color, qui martyrium coti-
dianum indicat; rubicundus color, sanguinis effusionem in martyrio;
iacentinus118 penitentiam. Niger mortem significat.
“In the rainbow there are three colours: the white colour, which
denotes daily martyrdom; the red colour, shedding of blood in
martyrdom; the blue colour, penance. Black signifies death (of the
soul).”
In dealing with the story of Noah and the rainbow sent as a sign by
God, the exegete combines here the three-coloured rainbow tradition
with the three forms of martyrdom, giving a simple and clear definition of
what these truly are (the appended fourth colour dark or black is meant as
unrelated to the fundamental three-colours pattern [cf. MS iii] in that it is
associated with the death of the soul and so it is placed in opposition to all
the other colours, which are linked with eternal life’s expectation). If we
examine this passage against the Cambrai excursus on martyrdom, as well
as cross-referring it to other related texts, the easy conclusion is that derc-
martre ‘red martyrdom’ of course means losing one’s life for Christ’s sake;
bánmartre ‘white martyrdom’ denotes the ascetic life, a voluntary separ-
ation from everything one loves in Cambrai homiletic terms; glasmartrae or
‘blue martyrdom’ signifies the discipline of penance, all the hardships and
fasting the penitent has to endure to be cleansed from his/her own sins.
This positive view of the penitents as Christians to be ranked alongside
the martyrs and the monks must be rooted in the private penance system I
have already recalled, whose effects were certainly softer and less socially
116 Ibid., 23.
117 Ibid., 24.
118 MS iacentinos (so Stancliffe); correction is mine.
THE RAINBOW ALLEGORY